“India can’t afford the epidemic of obesity and non-communicable diseases. It is time, the Indian consumer is warned about how bad and unhealthy is junk food”, said, Sunita Narain, director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), while leading the expert deliberation on the ‘Need for front-of-pack warning labels on ultra-processed junk foods’.
She was speaking at the three-day ‘National Conclave on Sustainable Food Systems’ which is being organized by CSE, at the Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI), Nimli, Rajasthan.
At a panel discussion the issue of front-of-pack labelling (FOPL) on packaged junk foods, she said that “Health Star Ratings are designed by the powerful food industry to mislead the consumer. By pushing these, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will give license to glorify junk foods, which is the opposite of what should be done”.
“The sole objective of the stakeholder consultations, which were heavily dominated by the packaged food industry, was to come up with a labelling system, which is industry-friendly” said Amit Khurana, programme director, Sustainable Food Systems at the Centre for Science and Environment, who was part of these consultations.
“All this while, FSSAI has been insensitive to the information needs of the consumer. It also ignored global best practices and evidence around them. Instead, in an orchestrated way, through the scientific panel and commissioned studies, it is now getting ready to adopt a labelling system which is considered least effective and rejected across the world”, he added.
“Given all the evidence, if front-of-pack labelling are to cater primarily to public health goals, they must take the form of warning labels and not health star ratings”, said Vandana Prasad, community pediatrician, Public Health Resource Network, Delhi. “We hope the FSSAI will withstand the pressure of food processing companies and meet this requirement urgently”, she added.
George Cheriyan, director, Consumer Unity and Trusts Society (CUTS) International and a member of the FSSAI, strongly advocated for a FOPL that is simple and easily interpretable by a consumer, thereby helping them identify unhealthy products.
“Voluntary Health Star Ratings allows industry to use it selectively. Hence it is used on products that are already healthier than others. It is important that Indian regulators choose a simple and interpretive label that aids consumer to choose between healthy and less healthy products”, he said.
“We have submitted our concerns to FSSAI. It can’t allow a system that will effectively nudge the consumer to make unhealthy choices. It will mislead the consumer because of its design, algorithm and inclusion of positive nutrients in the calculation. It can’t allow relaxed limits and voluntary adoption”, said Ms Narain, while concluding.
“FSSAI must come forward and show that they care for the Indian consumer and public health. They will have to act strongly to counter the industry pressure and fulfil the mandate given to them”, added Narain.
